Idiomatic French Expression
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| Meaning | to split hairs, to nit-pick, to quibble | |
| Literally | to cut the hair in four | |
| Register | normal | |
| Pronunciation | [koo pay lay sheu veu a(n) kahtr] | |
| IPA | [ku pe le ʃø vø ɑ̃ katrə] | |
Usage notes: Colorful idiomatic expressions often vary wildly from one language to the next, but couper les cheveux en quatre is one of the exceptions. The French and English expressions are very similar: they both dismiss debates over slight differences as cutting/splitting hair. Of course, since "split" means to cut the hair along its length into two pieces, it’s not quite the same as French’s "cut it into four (pieces)," but there’s no need to quibble about it. 🙂
Par exemple…
| Arrête de couper les cheveux en quatre ! | Stop splitting hairs! | |
| Il ne faut jamais d̩battre avec Alain Рil adore couper les cheveux en quatre. | You should never debate with Alain Рhe loves nit-picking. |
Synonyms
- chercher la petite bête (literally, "to search for the little bug")
- discutailler
- ergoter
- être tatillon
informal - chercher des poux
- chinoiser
- chipoter
- pinailler
vulgar - enculer les mouches
formal/literary - chicaner
- ratiociner
Related lessons
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I really like it that you give lots of synonyms, Laura! It encourages me to look them up in my Larousse and learn more. And your pronunciation guide helps me with the nuances, like how sometimes an “n” almost drops out.
Merci, glad you like it! 🙂 Just a quick note: it’s not that the n drops out, but rather that it’s pronounced nasally: https://www.lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/nasal-vowels/